While we’re pedanting, I have to take issue with a comment from your 27 Club segment in the August 3rd show.

Robert Johnson was far from an uninteresting figure that nobody cares about. He was one of the founders of the Delta Blues and arguably the most influential musician of the 20th century. If you’ve ever listened to classic rock, you’ve either heard his songs or his influences.

He also, like the others in the “club,” had some issues with alcohol, as well as gambling and womanizing. According to some rather Faustian blues lore, Johnson sold his soul to the Devil (who may or may not have been Steve Vai) at a rural crossroads in exchange for his skill. This act legendarily began this curse of talented musicians dying young, and certainly began the association between the blues and the devil (among certain religious interpretationists, anyhow).

Unlike the others in the club, Johnson’s death was murder. He’d been playing a series of gigs at a juke joint near Greenwood, Mississippi, and one evening was getting very flirtatious with the owner’s wife. Later in the evening, he was served a strychnine-laced bottle of whiskey, drank from it, and died three days later.

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